Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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87. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if she will provide an update on her engagement with the Department of Transport to improve rural public transport services and pilot new transport initiatives; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53708/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Our Rural Future is the government's national rural development policy. It sets out an ambitious blueprint for the development of, and investment in, rural Ireland over a five-year period.

The policy was developed following extensive consultation with rural stakeholders and communities, and issues of public transport in rural areas featured strongly in those discussions. Accordingly, there is a strong focus in Our Rural Future on improving the provision of transport and other services in rural areas.

Our Rural Future Progress Reports to date have reflected substantial progress on rural transport measures such as the expansion of Local Link services, investments in greenways and active travel infrastructure, as well as other public transport upgrades to the bus fleet and train stations.

The development of the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan will further expand the public transport network in rural areas and increase service levels.

Earlier this year, my Department also partnered with the Department of Transport to host a Rural Ideas Forum event on the topic of Public Transport and the Opportunities for Rural Ireland.

The Department of Transport is also a member of the Our Rural Future Implementation Advisory Group which meets twice yearly and supports the effective and sustainable implementation of the policy.

We will shortly begin work on developing a Work Programme for 2023, and this will include bilateral meetings with all relevant Departments, including the Department of Transport.

I am committed to ensuring that we now build on the momentum achieved in the first year of Our Rural Future, by continuing to deliver on initiatives in areas such as rural transport that deliver real benefits to rural Ireland.